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Thursday, 9 February 2017

Volcano island

Today three of us from the hostel went to volcano island, which is a volcanic island in the middle of lake Taal.
The first surprise was what the driver described as a safety tricycle. Instead of the usual motorbike with a sidecar the layout was like a Thai tuk tuk and the colour scheme was New York yellow taxi.
It took us down a steep winding road to a small office where they tried to sell tour packages but we held out for just the boat fee.
The island itself proved bigger than I expected with a village on the shore and a lot of horses. The walk up only took about 35 minutes but was hot, dusty and for much of the way viewless as the horses had turned up the path into a deep trench.
The view from the top of the path was worth it though with the crater below containing a smaller lake and then an island in an island in the middle of that.
On the way down the clouds actually appeared so it was slightly less roasting. Then it was just a matter of explaining to the boatman that we had paid return and no we wouldn't pay again, or give him cash as a 'souvenir'.